Falconio detectives denied DNA access

Monday 9 September 2002 13.44 EDT
First published on Monday 9 September 2002 13.44 EDT

Police in Australia investigating the disappearance of missing Briton Peter Falconio were today denied the chance to analyse a DNA sample from a double rape suspect.

Samples have already been taken from Bradley John Murdoch, 44, but the Australian supreme court ruled that they could not be tested until an appeal from his lawyers is heard. No date for the hearing has been set.

Mr Murdoch, a mechanic from Broome, Western Australia, appeared in court in Adelaide last week to face rape and kidnap charges unrelated to the Falconio case. However, detectives on the Falconio investigation have described him as a "person of interest to us".

They want to compare Mr Murdoch's DNA with a sample taken from a bloodstain found on the clothing of Mr Falconio's girlfriend, Joanne Lees.

Mr Murdoch was arrested over the rape allegations in Port Augusta, 800 miles from where Mr Falconio disappeared in July last year.

Mr Falconio, 28, from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, is believed to have been shot by a gunman who then attempted to abduct Ms Lees, also from near Huddersfield, on the Stuart highway north of Alice Springs.